Most damage to a valuable card happens in the sixty seconds after the pack is opened. A clean surface, clean hands and a sleeve within reach solves nearly all of it.
Cards leave the pack in the best condition they will ever be in. Everything after that is preservation. The good news is that opening packs carefully takes no longer than opening them carelessly.
Set up before you open anything
- Clear a hard, flat, dry surface. No crumbs, no drinks, no fabric that hides grit.
- Wash and dry your hands. Skin oils mark foil surfaces.
- Put penny sleeves and a couple of toploaders within arm's reach, opened and ready.
- Have somewhere to put the wrapper and the code card so they are not shuffled in with cards.
Opening the pack
- Tear along the crimped seam at the top, not through the middle of the pack.
- Do not use scissors or a knife blade directly against the pack; the top card sits closer to the wrapper than people expect.
- Slide the cards out as a block rather than pulling individual cards past each other, which causes edge scuffs.
- Hold cards by the edges. Fingerprints on holo surfaces are one of the most common condition complaints.
The first thirty seconds after
Fan the cards once to see what you have, then sleeve anything you might keep before you do anything else — before photographing it, before showing anyone, before checking a price. If it looks special, sleeve it and add a toploader. A card that has been passed around a table unsleeved has already lost condition.
Sorting afterwards
Split the pile into three: keepers (sleeved), tradeable or sellable cards (kept upright in a box, not loose in a pile), and bulk. Do this the same day. Cards left in a heap get bent corners from the weight of other cards and from being moved around.
We buy back cards you do not want to keep, so the third pile has somewhere to go.
Turn bulk into credit →A video version of this guide is planned for the DeuxyDex channel.
Sources
Prices, pull rates and set details change. Where we could not verify a claim, we left it out.